DESCRIPTION

An RSA_METHOD specifies the functions that OpenSSL uses for RSA
operations. By modifying the method, alternative implementations such as
hardware accelerators may be used. IMPORTANT: See the NOTES section for
important information about how these RSA API functions are affected by the
use of ENGINEAPI calls.

Initially, the default RSA_METHOD is the OpenSSL internal implementation,
as returned by RSA_PKCS1_SSLeay().

RSA_set_default_method() makes meth the default method for all RSA
structures created later. NB: This is true only whilst no ENGINE has
been set as a default for RSA, so this function is no longer recommended.

RSA_get_default_method() returns a pointer to the current default
RSA_METHOD. However, the meaningfulness of this result is dependent on
whether the ENGINE API is being used, so this function is no longer
recommended.

RSA_set_method() selects meth to perform all operations using the key
rsa. This will replace the RSA_METHOD used by the RSA key and if the
previous method was supplied by an ENGINE, the handle to that ENGINE will
be released during the change. It is possible to have RSA keys that only
work with certain RSA_METHOD implementations (eg. from an ENGINE module
that supports embedded hardware-protected keys), and in such cases
attempting to change the RSA_METHOD for the key can have unexpected
results.

RSA_get_method() returns a pointer to the RSA_METHOD being used by rsa.
This method may or may not be supplied by an ENGINE implementation, but if
it is, the return value can only be guaranteed to be valid as long as the
RSA key itself is valid and does not have its implementation changed by
RSA_set_method().

RSA_flags() returns the flags that are set for rsa's current
RSA_METHOD. See the BUGS section.

RSA_new_method() allocates and initializes an RSA structure so that
engine will be used for the RSA operations. If engine is NULL, the
default ENGINE for RSA operations is used, and if no default ENGINE is set,
the RSA_METHOD controlled by RSA_set_default_method() is used.

RSA_flags() returns the flags that are set for rsa's current method.

RSA_new_method() allocates and initializes an RSA structure so that
method will be used for the RSA operations. If method is NULL,
the default method is used.

RETURN VALUES

RSA_set_method() returns a pointer to the old RSA_METHOD implementation
that was replaced. However, this return value should probably be ignored
because if it was supplied by an ENGINE, the pointer could be invalidated
at any time if the ENGINE is unloaded (in fact it could be unloaded as a
result of the RSA_set_method() function releasing its handle to the
ENGINE). For this reason, the return type may be replaced with a void
declaration in a future release.

RSA_new_method() returns NULL and sets an error code that can be obtained
by ERR_get_error(3) if the allocation fails. Otherwise
it returns a pointer to the newly allocated structure.

NOTES

As of version 0.9.7, RSA_METHOD implementations are grouped together with
other algorithmic APIs (eg. DSA_METHOD, EVP_CIPHER, etc) into ENGINE
modules. If a default ENGINE is specified for RSA functionality using an
ENGINE API function, that will override any RSA defaults set using the RSA
API (ie. RSA_set_default_method()). For this reason, the ENGINE API is the
recommended way to control default implementations for use in RSA and other
cryptographic algorithms.

BUGS

The behaviour of RSA_flags() is a mis-feature that is left as-is for now
to avoid creating compatibility problems. RSA functionality, such as the
encryption functions, are controlled by the flags value in the RSA key
itself, not by the flags value in the RSA_METHOD attached to the RSA key
(which is what this function returns). If the flags element of an RSA key
is changed, the changes will be honoured by RSA functionality but will not
be reflected in the return value of the RSA_flags() function - in effect
RSA_flags() behaves more like an RSA_default_flags() function (which does
not currently exist).

SEE ALSO

HISTORY

RSA_new_method() and RSA_set_default_method() appeared in SSLeay 0.8.
RSA_get_default_method(), RSA_set_method() and RSA_get_method() as
well as the rsa_sign and rsa_verify components of RSA_METHOD were
added in OpenSSL 0.9.4.

RSA_set_default_openssl_method() and RSA_get_default_openssl_method()
replaced RSA_set_default_method() and RSA_get_default_method()
respectively, and RSA_set_method() and RSA_new_method() were altered to use
ENGINEs rather than RSA_METHODs during development of the engine
version of OpenSSL 0.9.6. For 0.9.7, the handling of defaults in the ENGINE
API was restructured so that this change was reversed, and behaviour of the
other functions resembled more closely the previous behaviour. The
behaviour of defaults in the ENGINE API now transparently overrides the
behaviour of defaults in the RSA API without requiring changing these
function prototypes.